This study compares the effects of two methods of teaching--teacher-centered and cooperative learning--on students' science achievement and use of social skills. The sample consists of 163 female elementary science students in 8 intact grade 5 classes who were assigned to 2 instructional methods and were taught an identical science unit by 4…

Purpose/Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the 2009-2010 USDA Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) on fruit intake and other behaviors related to fruit and vegetable consumption among Wisconsin fourth- and fifth-grade students. Methods: Participants were fourth- and fifth-grade from one FFVP school (n = 51)…

The development and application of a framework that captures main characteristics of learning in nature--the Field Trip in Natural Environments (FiNE) framework--is the main outcome of this study that followed up 22 daily field trips of 4-6th grade students to nature parks. The theoretical and practical framework, which was developed based on the…

There is a concern among educators in schools with high levels of poverty that students are lacking certain academic strategies, especially in mathematics. These students struggle to explore data systematically and procedurally. The purpose of this pre-posttest design study is to intentionally teach number sense skills in order to increase…

Recent work that has examined the impact of what are variously called periodic, interim, benchmark, or diagnostic assessments, typically administered three or four times during a school year, has produced mixed findings. For instance, one study reported small significant effects in mathematics in grades 3-8, but not in reading (Carlson et al.,…

Researchers and policymakers often assume that teacher turnover harms student achievement, but recent evidence calls into question this assumption. Using a unique identification strategy that employs grade-level turnover and two classes of fixed-effects models, this study estimates the effects of teacher turnover on over 600,000 New York City 4th…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of critical thinking instruction on music listening skills of fifth-grade students as measured by written responses to music listening. The researcher compared instruction that included opportunities for critical thinking (Critical Thinking Instruction, CTI) with parallel instruction without…

Students benefit from positive sport experiences in physical education. If designed well, sport provides a social avenue for physical activity and strengthens student achievement in psychomotor (e.g., motor skill), cognitive (e.g., decision-making), and affective (e.g., personal and social responsibility) learning domains. Unfortunately, not all…

Using a cross-sectional design and five Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills measures, researchers tested for gender differences in reading skills for 1,218 kindergarten through fifth-grade students. A series of two-way repeated measures analyses of variance with time of year (fall, winter, and spring) serving as the within-subjects…

Throughout this action research project report, the teacher-researchers explored the problem of test anxiety among students. The purpose of this project was to alleviate test anxiety among students with various interventions in grades five through seven in the subject areas of social studies, science, and language arts. There were 66 student…

In this case study the authors investigate how a Native Greenlandic teacher planned and implemented the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence Standards for Effective Pedagogy, an instructional model that builds upon students' cultural and linguistic strengths. Researchers and educators interested in transformative education…

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of time spent in outdoor play (i.e., on weekday and weekend days) on daily (i.e., average step count) and aerobic step count (i.e., average moderate to vigorous physical activity [MVPA] during the weekdays and weekend days) in fifth grade Costa Rican children. It was hypothesized that: (a)…

This quasi-experimental study investigated the effects of an Internet-delivered universally designed depth of vocabulary intervention that targeted both English-speaking and Spanish-English-speaking students. Two hundred forty students, 49% of whom were Spanish-English bilinguals, participated in the 16-week intervention. Intervention students…

Despite the long history of the study of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), two facts remain obvious. First, there are almost as many conceptions regarding the definition of PCK as there are researchers interested in it. Second, it is largely unclear which methods enable teacher educators to best prepare teacher candidates to use PCK. Recently,…

In partnership with three universities, the Cooper Institute, Dallas, completed the Texas Youth Fitness Study from 2008 to 2009. The study explored three key questions: (1) Is physical fitness associated with academic performance?; (2) Can physical education teachers collect high-quality information on student fitness?; and (3) Are school policies…